‘Declare Total War Against Boko Haram’; Reps Summon Service Chiefs …Women Protest In Abuja Over Abducted Girls …200 Abducted Girls Taken ‘Abroad’?

The Senate President, David Mark, yesterday in Abuja, urged the Federal Government to declare full scale military operation against insurgents in the North East.
Mark made the call in an address to welcome senators back from Easter recess.
He said the heightened spate of terrorist attacks and killings carried out by insurgents in the North East amounted to a declaration of war against the country.
He noted that in view of the fact that the insurgents had rejected calls for dialogue, the government should embark on comprehensive military onslaught to stamp out the menace.
“There is no doubt that our nation is at war. The enemy has clearly and unequivocally served the nation notice of its vile intentions.
“It is obvious that we are dealing with insurgents and well-funded nihilists who are determined to violently trample upon the secularity of the Nigerian state and destroy the country.
Mark also urged the Federal Government to deploy all available resources to not only combat the forces of destruction, but also unmask and punish the sponsors of terrorist groups plundering the country.
He said the campaign would be realised when local communities and other sections of Nigerians gave adequate support to the armed forces in their quest to contain the insurgency.
Mark pledged the determination of the National Assembly to sustain its partnership with all arms of government and Nigerians to bring insurgency to an end.
He warned politicians to desist from making statements capable of undermining the efforts of the members of the armed forces.
He, however, noted that the door should be left open to any effort to employ dialogue as means of finding a lasting solution to terrorism and insurgency in the country.
The House of Representatives have summoned service chiefs to brief members on actions   taken so far to free the 230 school girls abducted in Borno State by Boko Haram members.
They included the Chief of Defence State; Chief of Army Staff; Chief of Naval Staff; and the Chief of Air Staff.
The lawmakers, who resumed sitting in Abuja after a three-week Easter break, condemned the abduction of the girls, and berated the armed forces for their slow efforts to secure their release.
But, it was also a dramatic session, where one member from Kano State, Mr. Shehu Galandachi, came out clearly to say that so long as political power at the centre was not returned to the North, there would  be no solution to insurgency.
A member representing Chibok/Damboa/Gosa Federal Constituency of Borno State, Mr. Peter Biye-Gumta, who moved a motion on the abduction, recalled that “over two weeks” after the girls were abducted, their whereabouts remained unknown.
Biye-Gumta told theý House that the parents of the children were traumatized, and appealed to the military to “expedite action” in securing freedom for the girls.
He also solicited the intervention of the National Emergency Management ýAgency, to send relief materials to the communities affected by the invasion of the insurgents on the day the girls were abducted.
“Some of the parents of these abducted girls are right now lying on the road to the National Assembly, demanding urgent intervention by the government”, he added.
Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ms. Nnena Ukeje, called for foreign assistance to support the Federal Government in the anti-terrorism war.
In his contribution to the debate, a former chairman, Committee on Education, Mr. Farouk Lawan, said the girls went to write examinations when the abduction took place.
Lawan, who became emotional as he spoke, asked members to imagine for 30 seconds that their daughters were among the girlsý.
“We are all parents here. Just imagine for 30 seconds that your daughter is one of them.
“Very little, if anything at all, is being done to secure the release of these girls”, Lawan stated.
Several lawmakers blamed the inability of the military to free the girls on failure of government.
This view was spearheaded by the House Minority Whip, Mr. Sampson Osagie ý,who argued that “never before” had the security and welfare of the citizenry been compromised in Nigeria like in the last five to six years.
However, Galandachi brought a different dimension to the debate when he blamed insurgency on political domination at the centre by the South since ý1999.
The Kano lawmaker was emphatic in his argument, gesticulating angrily as he spoke.
He told the session, which was presided over by the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, that Nigeria had been avoiding the real cause of the insurgency.
According to him, so long as “one zone of the country” continues to control power at the centre, insurgency will not end.
The unperturbed Galadanchi still insisted that the solution to insurgency was the point he just raised.
Although the debate continued, his point did not seem to have been lost on members.
The House later adopted the motion, in addition to calling for a national day of prayers ýfor the release of the girls.
The session coincided with protests by women at the gates to the legislative building, who were demanding urgent actions to secure the release of the girls.
In another development, scores of bewildered parents of female students of the Federal Government Girls College, Chibok in Borno State, who were abducted by the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents two weeks ago from their hostels, yesterday, staged a protest at the National Assembly in Abuja.
Dressed in black, the women armed with placards containing emotional-laden inscriptions, lamented the continued hostage of their innocent precious damsels by the insurgents even as they expressed fears that they might have been subjected to one form of molestation or the other.
The leader of the obviously traumatised parents, Mrs. Duomi Mukhtar, said the essence of their visit to the National Assembly was to further draw global attention to their predicament.
She called on the leadership of both chambers of NASS to show sympathy for their plights by asking the Federal Government and the military authorities to ensure the immediate release of their daughters.
Four senators, Hellen Esuene; Zainab Kure; Barnabas Gemade and Ali Ndume, addressed the protesters on behalf of Senate President, David Mark.
The senators assured the women of their support and determination to throw their full weight behind efforts by the Federal Government to ensure the safe release of the girls.
Ndume, who is also from Borno State said, “Our thoughts and prayers go to all of you because we are one of you. We stand united in grief with you in your hour of pain, agony and anxiety. We will do everything possible to make sure that the kidnappers release our daughters immediately, unconditionally.”
Also, the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Zainab Maina, who also addressed the women, urged them to remain prayerful as the Federal Government and the military authorities would ensure that the innocent girls are reconciled with their parents.
Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday urged the Federal Government to seek the assistance of the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to urgently rescue 234 girls abducted by the Boko Haram insurgents in Chibok, Borno State.
The Senate also unanimously resolved to confer with President Goodluck Jonathan to seek ways of curtailing the spread of insurgency in the country.
These resolutions followed a motion entitled: “Abduction of School girls in Chibok, Borno State,” sponsored by Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba and 107 other Senators.
Some Senators in their contribution blamed the degenerating insurgency on sabotage and collaboration by insiders in the military.
Others wondered why the President has not deemed it fit to visit Borno State to commiserate with the people and boost the morale of the troops on ground.
A Senator from the area gave a graphic account of how the terrorists have been moving the girls from camp to camp in the forest since the day they were abducted.
He named the specific locations where the girls are being camped at the moment.
He lamented that the military did not act on the intelligence he placed at their disposal that could have facilitated early rescue of the girls.
In his lead debate, Ndoma-Egba urged the Senate to note with grief the inhuman abduction of Secondary School girls in Chibok, Borno State by alleged Boko Haram terrorists.
He informed the upper chamber just resumed from its two-week Easter recess that the incident occurred just when the country was nursing its grief caused by the rush hour bombing of a bus park in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
He said when the nation was trying to come to grips with the bombing that claimed over 75 people and wounded dozens more, the country was struck yet with another devastating blow: the abduction of about 234 girls from their school in Chibok on April 15.
He observed that the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State was attacked when militants broke into the school, shot the guards and abducted a large number of students into trucks before carrying them to Sambisa forest, a known hideout for the Boko Haram sect.
There are reports that 200 of the school girls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents have been sighted in southern Borno in seven buses awaiting movement to an unknown destination.
Residents of Borno revealed that the girls were sighted in the Gwoza-Bama axis.
Confirming this development to journalists in Maiduguri, a civil rights activist, Dr. Peregrino Brimah said residents of the border town between Nigeria and Cameroon involved in the search for the girls confirmed seeing the school girls huddled together inside seven buses awaiting movement to an unknown destination.
The activist called on the security agencies to go in pursuit of the insurgents before the girls were taken out of the country.
He also called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately approve the formal request of thousands of youths in the area to carry arms to confront the insurgents.
Our correspondent also gathered that some of the school girls abducted from Government Girls’ Secondary School (GGSS), Chibok, Borno State, have been ferried around Lake Chad basin by their abductors.
A Chibok youth leader, Dr Pogu Bitrus, who stated this during an interview with the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), yesterday, said there was a report that the girls were hustled to the neighbouring country.
Bitrus has accused the government of not doing anything possible to rescue the final-year students of GGSS, Chibok, adding that even if the government is doing anything possible to rescue the girls, it is not being revealed to anybody.
The search for the missing girls was then left in the hands of their hapless parents who rented 150 commercial motorcyclists, got some volunteers with cutlasses and bows and arrows and went into the forest determined to rescue their wards or die trying.
In the end, even they were forced to abandon the search when a warning came from the terrorists that if they didn’t stop, they and their children would be killed.
Earlier, Prophet T.B. Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Ikotun, Lagos, has cautioned the military against an all out attack on the sect to free the abducted girls.
He said this was necessary to prevent the girls from being harmed.
The popular cleric on Sunday during his sermon, urged the security agents to take it easy and abstain from deploying full force in their attempt to rescue the girls.

Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi welcomes Ambassador Rick Barton, US Assistant Secretary on Bureau for Conflict and Stabilization and operation, Washington D.C. during a courtesy visit to Government House, Port Harcourt.